Author: Stephen Dougherty The smoke rose from a fire that wasn’t a fire. Dr Alvin shifted his old bones in his favorite seat while his young visitor poured him a drink at his request. “How did you end up on the rock in the first place?” The boy sat in the only other seat ...

Author: Aubrey Williams Every Tuesday and Thursday I have business in the Kirk Tower, and take the lift to the 21st floor. I’ve done this for the past three months, and every time I take it, regardless of which floor I start from, there’s always the same man in there. He’s ...

Author: Shannon O'Connor We all thought it was funny that Aunty Dotty got excited for events that nobody else cared about, like the 250th anniversary of the Boston Marathon. She had been in hibernation for years, nobody knew exactly how long. She would go to events, ...

Author: Rosie Oliver Grey-ghosted darkness. Not even a piece of dulled memory in the expansive nothingness ahead. Damn! Time is now against her completing her sculpture. She had been so sure the right shape could be found along her latest trajectory. Floating, she twists ...

Author: Alastair Millar As I burst the blister on Martha's back, the gelatinous pus within made its escape. Thanking the Void Gods for the medpack’s surgical gloves, I wiped her down, then set to work with the tweezers; if I couldn't get the eggs out, it was all for ...

Author: Majoki So not painterly. Not even close. Too pixelated. Too blurred at the edges of reality. Not a good start in your first soloverse. Always so much to learn. Tamp down the expectations, go back and study the masters. Phidias. Caravaggio. Kurosawa. Leibovitz. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer That shadow is cast by scenery. The one next to it likewise. The third I’m not sure about, and the fourth will become scenery if the body isn’t found. Sniping lasers give nothing away when killing, although the wounds are distinctive. By ...

Author: Don Nigroni When everything is going well, I can’t relax. I just wait and worry for something bad to happen. So when I got a promotion last week, naturally I expected something ugly would happen, perhaps a leaky roof or maybe a hurricane. But this time, no matter ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks Athabasca was a town of gas and coal. No wind or solar were allowed. Local officials said the Lord would return by fire while windmills and solar panels could only mar the landscape. And fire in a town of coal and gas was, naturally, a lovely ...

Author: Marcel Neumann After years of living in an unjust world, being disillusioned by an ideology I once thought held promise and having lost faith in humanity’s collective desire to live in harmony, I decided to live off the grid in a remote Alaskan village. Any needed ...

Author: Majoki They call us the new DJs—Dream Jockeys—because we stitch together popular playlists for the masses. I think it lacks imagination to piggyback on the long-gone days of vinyl playing over the airways. But that’s human nature. Always harkening back to something ...

Author: David Barber Like nuclear weapons before them, the plagues each side kept hidden were too terrible to use; instead they waged sly wars of colds and coughs, infectious agents sneezed in trams and crowded lifts, blighting commerce with working days lost to fevers and ...

Author: David Dumouriez I thought I was ready. “I was on the precipice, looking down.” Internal count of five. A long five. “I was on the precipice, looking down.” Count ten. “I was on the precipice, looking down.” I noticed a brief, impatient nod. The nod ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “The only things I work with are killers and currency. You don’t look dangerous, and I don’t see you waving cash.” The man brushes imaginary specks from his lapels with the hand not holding a dagger, then gives a little grin as he ...

Author: Gabriel Walker Land In every direction there was nothing but baked dirt, tumbleweeds, and flat death. The blazing sun weighed down on me. I didn't know which way to walk, and I didn't know why. How I'd gotten there was long since forgotten. Being lost wasn't the ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks I live in Mississauga, a city that builds dozens of downtown towers every year, the finest towers in the world. Each morning, I watch cranes move like long legged birds along the pond of the horizon. They bow and raise their heads, plucking at ...

Author: TJ Gadd Anna stared at where the panel had been. Joshua was right; either The Saviour had never left Earth, or Anna had broken into a vault full of sand. She carefully replaced the panel, resetting every rivet. Her long red hair hid her pretty face. When ...

Author: David C. Nutt The uniformed Da’Ri officer saw me enter the bar and nearly ran to me. He was at my booth before I had a chance to settle in and was talking at light speed before the first round hit the table. Things did not go well for the Da’Ri today. As an observer ...